-------------

 

The keys click inside the lock, and the door opens and lets in the poor man who has been strolling the streets back and forth by himself for the past hours.

 

Kyuhyun stops for a brief moment just to make sure Donghae’s house is really empty. Donghae had surprised Sehun by taking him to eat out at one of the fanciest places in the city - they’d not be back in hours. Kyuhyun smiles sadly when realising there’s plenty of food in the fridge and all the Christmas decorations had been left on. He could have a little lonely Christmas of his own.

 

The apartment starts echoing with the sad first notes of a ballad song. Kyuhyun turns on the full volume and sits down on the sofa, sipping sadly from the corner of his red wine. He grabs a handful of cookies from the jar, munching them while staring out of the window in peaceful gloominess.

 

The clock struck nine o’clock at night. The time the children would receive their presents, the time everyone would be smiling the most. Kyuhyun found himself wondering what Eunhyuk was doing right now. He would probably be alone too. He would probably be still in the dorm - he had no other friends than Donghae and if he wasn’t here, he was sitting in his room, reading a book and maybe sipping a glass of wine.

 

Kyuhyun glances at his own wine. Eunhyuk wouldn’t have liked this one. It was too sweet, too fruity for his taste. Eunhyuk always wanted the wine to be tart - especially if it was red. He also would’ve thought eating chocolate chip cookies with fine red wine would’ve been a disgrace. He always emphasised how red wine should be eaten with only the finest of foods, and how it was not a drink to eat with cheap snacks.

 

The ballad on the background ended and the next one on the album started, with cheerful piano notes lifting up the atmosphere of the quiet apartment. Sipping from his glass, Kyuhyun found himself smiling. Despite all that defiance, every time he and Eunhyuk drank together they drank the sweet, fruity wines and snacked cheaply. Eunhyuk wasn’t the man of his words. He always went with what made Kyuhyun the happiest.

 

Suddenly there was a huge, cracking noise of the front door being flung open.

 

“Meeeerry Christmaaaaaas!”

 

A very familiar, yet a very drunk voice declares from the hallway, accompanied with ridiculous chuckles. Before Kyuhyun has time to even process what is happening, two wasted faces smile at him from the doorway.

 

“That’s the saddest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

 

Minho notes quietly when seeing the way Kyuhyun is sitting on the sofa, alone, in the dark, with his cookies and the wine glass.

 

“Even though you’ve been observing me tonight…!”

 

Joonmyun shouts shrilly, grabbing Minho’s arm like he’d made the most hilarious remark of all times, and they both break into hysterical series of giggles. A can of beer drops from Joonmyun’s fingers, and spills on the white carpet on Donghae’s floor. Minho and Joonmyun glance at each other, both kneeling down and starting to wipe off the nasty brown spot with their sleeves.

 

Kyuhyun, who has been observing the entry of these two heroes in quiet bafflement, stares emptily in front of him for a while before gulping down the rest of the glass. He is not sure whether he wants to know what is going on.

 

“We came here to...to...Minho, what did we come here for again?”

 

All three of them are sitting on the sofas. There are no lights on, and the sad ballad album is still weeping on the background. Joonmyun giggles as he pats Kyuhyun’s shoulder, looking at him like he’d expected him to know why he was there. Minho clears his throat. He seems slightly less drunk than his companion.

 

“Kyuhyun! We came here for Kyuhyun! So...you know, you don’t have to be alone.”

 

“It’s Christmas!”

 

“Yes, it’s Christmas! And you know, no one should be alone on Christmas and all that.”

 

Kyuhyun sighs pathetically. He really, really didn’t need the company of these two drunkards right now as much as he appreciated the thought behind it.

 

“How did you even know I’m here?”

 

He moaned, glancing deliberately at the beer bottle in Joonmyun’s hands. The wine he was having already ended and he really, really felt like not being able to deal this situation without some liquid help.

 

“Donghae called us. He said you were so desperate that you’d been lying to him about having company.”

 

Minho said, suddenly kneeling down in front of Kyuhyun, placing his hands on the man’s hands. He looked up to him sadly, with his eyes looking big and empathetic. The act would’ve been really touching unless the man would’ve been smelling like ten bottles of booze.

 

“Kyuhyun. I’m so, very, terribly sorry for what you’ve been going through. I would’ve never wanted this kind of relationship to happen to you.”

 

“Yeah, anyone else but Kyuhyun, not our Kyuhyun, our Kyuhyun deserves just the best of men.”

 

Joonmyun immediately adds to Minho’s words, grabbing Kyuhyun’s head inside his arm and shuffling his hair - seemingly forgetting about who is supposed to be the hyung here. Kyuhyun squeals uncomfortably, trying to free himself from the loving touches of his friends without success. Minho jumps on top of him, hugging him tightly and mumbling some unclear words of compassion in his hair. Kyuhyun squeezes his eyes tightly close without being entirely sure whether he should thank or spite Donghae for seeing through his lies.

 

Not too long after, the ballad album is gone and the apartment is filled up with cheerful Christmas carols. They discovered the secret location of Donghae’s beer bottles and the amount of empty bottles hanging around on the floors is starting to become rather worrying. Joonmyun is standing on the sofa, wrapped in a flower blanket and screaming along the lines of “Jingle bells” with a very poor English, and Minho is lying on the floor taking a video of him. Kyuhyun is still sitting on the same sofa, slowly gulping down the beer and half-amusedly making remarks on the stupidity of his friends. Half of his mind is still wondering whether Eunhyuk would have an early sleep tonight. He probably is. He's an early sleeper and doesn't let things like Christmas bother his routine. He is also very keen on -

 

“Haha...Kyuhyun...hahaha...I’m so sorry...I sent it to everyone…”

 

Minho’s giggles from the floor bring Kyuhyun back on Earth. In a fraction of a second, he realises the man has been using his phone all the time.

 

When Kyuhyun stands up from the sofa aggressively and runs to rip his phone back from Minho’s fingers, Minho makes an apologetic remark before bursting into ridiculous laughters again.

 

“I didn’t send it to Eunhyuk! Everyone else, but not him! I promise I ticked his name off, I didn’t send it to Eunh-”

 

Kyuhyun gives Minho a rather warning glance and walks away from the room to calm down his pounding heart. He was so scared for a while. Even though all he could do is to think about Eunhyuk, the least he wants right now is to send him some drunken video messages. It’d be too cruel, almost brutal to bother him with new ones, especially when it had been kind of the reason they fought anyway.

 

What was the exact reason we fought again? Kyuhyun found himself thinking when leaning against the kitchen counter. Even the sink was full of bottles. How come they succeeded in drinking so many?

 

Suddenly it all comes back to his head. It had been so stupid. So damn stupid. Kyuhyun had been drinking with a certain friend, innocently playing video games and laughing and telling jokes and talking about life and snacking and having a good time - anything a normal person does with their best friend. The night had become long, they had become really tired, Kyuhyun had fallen asleep in front of the TV in middle of the piles of crisps and beer bottles. He had woken up early in the morning and hurried back home after helping his sleeping friend by carrying him to bed and cleaning up the TV room. That’s all. But the problem was not what they had been doing, it was that it was with this certain friend - a certain friend that always seemed to cause trouble in their relationship. A certain friend that seemed to become the single target of Eunhyuk’s negative attention. A certain friend that despite being very, very important for Kyuhyun seemed to make his life -

 

Speaking of the devil. Kyuhyun sees how his screen turns on to alert a new message.

 

From Changmin.

 

“Are you fine with the two morons? xD”

 

An excited scream fills the house. Minho and Joonmyun seem to have discovered something wonderful.

 

“As long as the neighbours are. Damn they’re loud :D”

 

Kyuhyun types in the message and sends it. He hasn’t been talking with Changmin after what happened. Changmin knows he caused trouble again - he always knows it if Kyuhyun doesn’t text him soon after they’ve met. He knows that he has become - again - the main reason of Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk’s relationship problems.

 

The answer is there within seconds.

 

“Should I come and pick them up?”

 

Kyuhyun glances around. Maybe it would actually be a good idea to have someone sensible here to help with cleaning up. It wouldn’t be a nice surprise for Donghae to come back home with his sweetheart and see his home blown around like after a huge house party.

 

What Eunhyuk doesn’t know, can’t harm him, right? Kyuhyun bites his lip one more time before pressing the send button. He knows he shouldn’t be letting Eunhyuk control him the way he does, he shouldn’t be allowing this kind of behaviour to go on, but...he still knows he will, eventually, forgive Eunhyuk again. Because he knew that inside his heart, under all the complications and neediness and trouble Eunhyuk loved him very, very much.

 

When swiping his way out from his chat with Changmin, Eunhyuk’s little icon pops up on his recent contacts. They haven’t been hearing from each other in almost two days. Their previous record, so far, has been three days without contact. Would the record break this time? When would they make up the fight?

 

Like of an old habit, Kyuhyun presses the little smiling picture and their previous chat opens up. He cringes when seeing how their fight had already started in the texts. The last message from Eunhyuk is just a meaningful row of question marks.

 

“I miss you.”

 

Kyuhyun types experimentally, looking at the words and wondering what would happen if he just sent them without a further explanation. After all, their fights also ended, one way or another. Maybe this would be the way this time. Maybe it was the way every time. They wanted to be more together than they hated each other.

 

His heart stops for a moment. Suddenly, he realises Eunhyuk was online and he could probably see he was typing in something. Hastily, Kyuhyun deletes the words and clicks himself out from the chat, glancing at the screen proudly like trying to convince the machine he wasn’t going to send such ridiculous things.

 

But what happens next stops his heart for a much longer moment. Under Eunhyuk’s picture, something changes.

 

“typing…”

 

Kyuhyun throws the phone on the table, quickly closing the screen. No. It couldn’t be...Eunhyuk wasn’t actually going to...was he trying to...no…

 

He opens the screen again, just to see the “typing” has changed to “online”. He waits for a minute. He waits for another minute. The “online” changes to “offline”.

 

Sighing and abandoning his phone on the kitchen table Kyuhyun hurries back to the living room just to turn to a shocked grin.

 

“Kyu! Kyu! Come look what we found! Haha, here, under all these damn blankets was this huge box and we opened it and look! This is hilarious! Listen!”

 

Minho is sitting inside the huge cardboard box, all its contents ripped apart around it. Joonmyun is playing around with what seemed to be packaging materials...and a huge, spotty stuffed puppy toy. Minho is dying of laughter, holding a piece of pink paper in his hands and trying to catch his breath so to read out whatever hilarious things the paper contained.

 

“It’s a poem about Donghae! Hahaha oh my god this is so hilarious I can’t breathe hahaha this is so epic who has written this hahaha it’s so cheesy it’s - “

 

The grin on Minho’s face drops when Kyuhyun pulls the paper out of his fingers. Kyuhyun is not saying anything, but just turns so intensively red from anger that Joonmyun and Minho give each other worrying glances.

 

“W-what’s wrong Kyu - “

 

“Get out! Right now.”

 

Kyuhyun says quietly. He stares at the paper in his fingers, at the neat handwriting that was meant to be seen by Donghae only, not by any others. Is this how he is paying Donghae for thinking about him? By letting these disrespectful excuses of an idol rip his boyfriend’s Christmas presents and laugh at them?

 

Without an idea how this all got him so personally angry, Kyuhyun rips Minho out of the box and on the way out, grabs Joonmyun’s arm as well and without further explanation throws the two of them out of the door and bangs it close. Kyuhyun breathes heavily, trying to think how he could manage to get the box to look like it hasn’t been opened. His heart couldn’t take the idea the only successful romantic couple he knew would have something as shameful as this happening to them.

 

The door is knocked on and Kyuhyun opens it angrily to tell his friends that their behaviour wasn’t helping his aching heart at all...just to find a smiling Changmin standing behind the door.

 

The drunkards are gone and the Christmas album has ended. The bottles are lying all around the house - it is miraculous how fast those two succeeded in making a mess. One of the armchairs is turned down, and sadly, Sehun’s carefully sealed Christmas present is ripped apart all around the living room like after an attack by a hungry raven swarm. The huge-eyed dalmatian stuffed puppy is lying on its back on the floor, staring Kyuhyun deep in the eyes.

 

Changmin walks to stand right behind Kyuhyun, breathing in quickly like about to say something funny but then turning himself down when noticing how melancholically Kyuhyun is glancing over the mess.

 

“I feel like a horrible person.”

 

Kyuhyun sighs finally, turning around and smiling at Changmin who automatically shakes his head. He is wearing very casual clothes - it seems like he hasn't been to any parties either. His hair is very ordinarily swiped backwards without much care, like he would have finished his look in half a minute. Well, he probably had.

 

Neither of them say anything. Changmin raises his brows, evaluating Kyuhyun’s face like he wouldn’t be entirely sure whether the other one is about to start crying or laughing. Kyuhyun closes his eyes and lets his head fall backwards, and finally, after a painfully long silence, starts laughing. Changmin relaxes and laughs too, grabbing a piece of wrapping paper from the floor and throwing it in the air while Kyuhyun drops himself on the floor and laughs hysterically.

 

The two of them start cleaning up the living room. They find a roll of wrapping paper from Donghae’s desk, and squeeze the stuffed puppy back in the box. Just before they are about to reseal the box, Kyuhyun remembers the poem and slips it in, smiling by himself when struggling to imagine Sehun writing such material with his sassy fingers.

 

“He has put in an effort.”

 

Changmin sighs finally when everything looks like nothing has happened...except the wrapping paper has changed. Kyuhyun hopes Sehun would be just as ignorant to detail as he claimed his boyfriend to be.

 

“It’s good to see someone still puts an effort to Christmas.”

 

Kyuhyun answers cynically, grabbing a handful of bottles from the floor while walking in the kitchen. When trying to hide the bottles inside a huge plastic bag, he can’t avoid from noticing how the door of Donghae’s alcohol hoard is left open and it’s not even empty.

 

“Have you been drinking tonight, Changmin?”

 

He yells absentmindedly when kneeling down, hopefully looking for at least one good wine bottle in between all the beer. He doesn’t feel like drinking beer after observing the behaviour of two of his dongsaengs that were very much into beer, but...wine would be a different thing.

 

“I’m here with car, Kyu, do you think I’m some drunken driver? And don’t you remember the conversation we had, about cutting down on - “

 

Changmin’s voice echoes from the hallway but Kyuhyun has noticed something that draws in his entire attention. Yes, right there, behind all of the bottles, on the very corner of the shelf, there is a silver bottle with the white, huge letters, and the yellow price tag still hanging from the bottleneck.

 

Pictures flow right to his eyes, and he has no idea how after all these years, the bottle is still unopened and - most of all - in Donghae’s flat.

 

“We’re not cutting down on drinking tonight.”

 

Kyuhyun states firmly outloud, grabbing the bottle and determinedly walks back to the living room with two wine glasses.

 

“ - and you know, I remember when I was looking at these bottles with him, and his eyes widened like this, and he pointed at the label and told me that it was the wine his grandparents used to serve only in the most remarkable of events. Like when someone was born, when someone died, when someone got married, when someone divorced, when someone retired. Okay, to be honest, his family sounded like drunkards. That kind of stuff happens like every day.”

 

The bottle is in middle of the cleaned out table, the two men sitting around it like it’d been a sacred ritual. Changmin is nodding at Kyuhyun’s story, too kind to interrupt him even though at times his mouth is curving into a wry smile as something funny about the situation pops into his mind.

 

“And of course I asked him immediately: should we buy it? Because he so clearly wanted to have it. But you know him, he can never do things the easy way, he became all about “traditions” and mumbled so much useless excuses when I actually knew he couldn’t afford it. It is, after all, quite a fine wine. On the next day, I came back to the shop to buy it for him as a present but it was gone, everything was gone, even the last of the stocks. I ran around the city for an entire afternoon trying to hunt for the bottle and finally found it - with a ridiculously exploitative price - but bought it anyway. I packed it inside a - “

 

At this point Changmin can’t help but chuckle aloud. He pats Kyuhyun’s shoulder, trying to stop his chuckles but having to hide his face in the closest pillow to avoid from laughing. Kyuhyun blinks, looking at his best friend honestly without a clue what is so funny about the situation.

 

“Kyu...I understand...it is a very special bottle...but...you know, it’s been ten minutes and you still haven’t gotten to even packing the gift. Sorry...I love you, Kyu, but if we want to drink it before Donghae comes home we should probably start.”

 

“Is there a problem in waiting for another minute?”

 

Kyuhyun gives the bottle another glance.

 

“The story was coming to its .”

 

He whispers, evoking another amused chuckle in Changmin. The pictures of their first Christmas together were around him like he would relive the moment. The very special wine bottle that was supposed to be the best damn romantic idea ever. He would’ve given it to Eunhyuk, with just the two of them, together in their dorm, all the hyungs gone out partying, he would’ve taken out two glasses of wine with fancy snacks - just like Eunhyuk liked - and he would’ve been dressed out fancily and Eunhyuk would’ve been so happy and then Kyuhyun would’ve handed him the bottle, asking him whether Eunhyuk considered this an occasion important enough for opening it. And then Eunhyuk would’ve said yes and then -

 

Changmin sighs so loudly that Kyuhyun is brought back to this world. The reality in which Eunhyuk is a stupid, jealous chump and he, himself, is a fool for him.

 

Kyuhyun leans out his hand, thinking of what kind of things drinking the bottle would symbolise if their life was a fictional piece of work. Forgetting about Eunhyuk, moving on from Eunhyuk, bringing a circle back to its start, change, a new era…

 

Changmin chuckles softly, playfully poking Kyuhyun’s side with his feet.

 

“I know that you’re thinking of something really deep and symbolic right now. Stop it. Let’s drink.”

 

He adds, standing up and about to grab the bottle from the table but Kyuhyun’s hand is quicker and grabs his wrist. Changmin raises his brows, smiling at Kyuhyun mysteriously. Kyuhyun doesn’t say anything but just shakes his head in disbelief. Now that looking at Changmin, and his smiling eyes and brown, messy curls and stature that was so familiar that he could have carved a statue out of him with his eyes closed, Kyuhyun remembers something. Something that has been just mixed up within Eunhyuk’s crazy, angry shouting, mixed up within all the other crazy things Eunhyuk had said, the stuff that never really left his head, a tiny little detail, but a detail that suddenly could’ve made sense…

 

“Changmin.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Did you send Eunhyuk pictures of me last time?”

 

A distant sound of bells jingling flies from one of the neighbouring flats but neither of them pay attention to anything else than the awful monster of a question that has just been let out in between them. Without further explanation, both of them know exactly that the other one knows they’re talking about the same thing. Changmin gulps, pulling his hand out from Kyuhyun’s fingers.

 

“N-no. Why would I?”

 

“Eunhyuk said I sent him some pictures. But I didn’t. Did you?”

 

“No. Why would I take pictures of you sleeping and send them to him, what would be the - “

 

Changmin starts, his eyes widening like he was defending himself. But he soon gulps down his words when realising he had already fallen to his own trap.

 

Kyuhyun didn’t mention anything about sleeping.

 

“I-it...you know, I didn’t think he’d...I mean…”

 

Changmin mutters, his words trying to explain himself out but his body language seems to be that of a thief caught in the act.

 

“Why would you?”

 

Kyuhyun says, almost laughing, but in his heart knowing that this was not something he should be laughing at. He looks at the bottle in front of him and suddenly realises how terribly wrong impression a picture taken of someone sleeping in someone else’s bed might give- especially for someone who is a paranoid hypersensitive mess like Eunhyuk.

 

“You know it without asking.”

 

“What?”

 

Kyuhyun looks up to Changmin, his eyes wide and sincere. Changmin is about to say something, but snorts instead like there’d been something absurdly funny in the situation, throwing his head back to face the ceiling instead. He taps his fingers repeatedly against his own thighs before saying the words so that they can be barely heard, even in the quiet apartment.

 

“You’re not as stupid as that, Kyuhyun.”

 

“What?”

 

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know.”

 

“Did you send the pictures...knowing he would get angry?”

 

Changmin nods, closing his eyes. Kyuhyun doesn’t take his eyes from the bottle.

 

“Did you also - “

 

“Yes. I always pick your phone if I see he calls, I make sure he sees we hang out a lot, I reveal the most intimate facts of you when he’s present so that he knows exactly how much we two talk, and yes, I do it all just to annoy him.”

 

“But why?”

 

Kyuhyun asks in sincere confusion, staring at Changmin’s back as the man starts walking nervously towards the kitchen just to turn around and sit back on the sofa behind Kyuhyun.

 

It was one of those endless Starcraft nights in Changmin’s flat. It had all started from the simple conversation. “I love Starcraft.” “You too?”. Kyuhyun started to pop in for an intense gaming session whenever he had a chance.

 

The snacks were thrown around the dark room. It was 5am. Changmin was sitting on the floor, wrapped up in a blanket, with the laptop in his lap and headphones tightly around his head. He was breathing heavily.

 

“!”

 

Changmin shouted and threw the headphones from his head. In frustration, he pushed the laptop away from him and turned around to glance whether his guest had already fallen asleep on the bed.

 

Kyuhyun’s head was lulling comfortably against the wall while the man was sleeping with the headphones on and the laptop on his legs. His hair was still curling in the all right directions from the concert last night, and there were traces of make-up under his eyes. Other than that, he looked just like any ordinary Korean young man living an ordinary life full of unhealthy midnight snacking and gaming marathons.

 

Turning off his own computer, Changmin grabbed the blanket from the floor and moved to lie his back against the wall next to Kyuhyun. As much as he tried to be sneaky, Kyuhyun woke up, looking around confusedly like he would have no idea how he got himself there. When seeing his TVXQ sunbae wrapped up in a blanket next to him, his confusion turned into a huge grin.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“It’s fine. I lost it.”

 

“You too?”

 

Changmin patted Kyuhyun’s shoulder and they smiled at each other. Kyuhyun yawned, the laptop sliding from top of his legs to somewhere under Changmin’s sheets. Changmin smiled and grabbed the laptop, placing it on the floor instead.

 

“We should probably go to sleep.”

 

Changmin said softly, starting to throw the crisp bags and empty cola bottles from the bed to the floor. Kyuhyun nodded, laying his head against the wall and looking like he’d fallen asleep again. Changmin snorted, playfully pushing Kyuhyun to lie properly on the bed. Kyuhyun smiled without opening his eyes. He grabbed the blanket and without asking for a permission, made himself comfortable in Changmin’s bed.

 

Changmin gulped. Freezing for a moment, he stood up and went to close the door of his room. He walked back to his bed, staring at the sight in front of him with questions flowing back and forth in his head. Should he...could he…

 

As carefully as possible, Changmin laid himself down under the blanket right next to Kyuhyun.

 

“Changie...you stole the blanket from me.”

 

Kyuhyun suddenly whined, pulling the blanket back to himself without mercy. He seemed to really be half-asleep. Changmin chuckled, pulling the blanket playfully back just to realise Kyuhyun was pulling the pillow from under his head and taking it all for himself instead.

 

“Hey - “

 

“Good night, Changmin.”

 

Kyuhyun yawned, turning on his side so that all Changmin could see was his back.

 

Changmin froze at his place for a while before turning Kyuhyun around and staring at his eyes in the dark. Kyuhyun opened his eyes confusedly, just a moment before Changmin greeted him with a kiss.

 

Their lips could barely touch before Kyuhyun had already pushed Changmin on the other side of the bed.

 

“W-what are you…”

 

Kyuhyun said, hiding himself under the blanket like it would’ve helped anything. Changmin wiped his mouth, shaking his head in an apology. He knew it would be a mistake, but...Kyuhyun kept on coming night after night and...

 

“I thought you felt...the same way.”

 

Changmin muttered. Kyuhyun shook his head strictly.

 

“Can we forget that?”

 

“Let’s forget that.”

 

“Well...think about it. Why?”

 

Changmin mutters, burying his head in his hands. Kyuhyun gulps. In his mind, he always liked to think all the years that had passed between that moment in their past and what they were today had took away the one-sided wish for a romance. All these years, he liked to think what they had was just the most epic, affectionate friendship ever. And he had been so proud, so delighted to have someone like Changmin by his side, as a...friend.

 

“All these years?”

 

“Every single one.”

 

A huge burster of laughter breaks in from the apartment above. Something drops on the floor, causing gentle vibrations in the ceiling: the jingling Christmas decoration starts waving from side to side, followed by a weird bang from the doorway of Donghae’s flat. When all the noise quiets down, Changmin and Kyuhyun are still sitting in their exact positions without moving an inch.

 

Unable to take it anymore, Kyuhyun stands up and walks to stand in front of the window. This means everything Eunhyuk has been suspecting all these years - every single stupid fight they had over whether his relationship with Changmin was appropriate or not - had been there for a reason.

 

But it wouldn’t change a thing, Kyuhyun thinks, then taking a deep breath and trying to figure out how to put his words so that he would hurt his best friend the least.

 

“Changmin. I know that you know that I can’t - “

 

Kyuhyun turns around and stops immediately. Changmin is tearing up, hugging himself and looking out of the window like he’d been going through an unbelievable amount of pain. When he sees Kyuhyun’s worried eyes he hides his face and hits his own thigh repeatedly with his open palm.

 

“I know that you can’t…”

 

He starts sobbing, about to stand up and rush away but his idea is prevented by Kyuhyun’s arms. Kyuhyun grabs Changmin from his shoulders, hugging him tight. Changmin stops sobbing the immediate second, confusedly freezing while the other one squeezes the life out of him.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“...you don’t have to be, it’s my fault, I just can’t stop...thinking of us...how it would be like to...to…”

 

Changmin starts sobbing uglily, breaking from the hug and staring down at Kyuhyun with his lips shivering. Kyuhyun bites his own lip, knowing what Changmin was about to do but felt too awkward to pull back now that they were almost at it. He closes his eyes when Changmin forces their lips together, filling Kyuhyun’s mouth with salty tears.

 

If just my heart didn’t belong to someone else, Kyuhyun thought and as softly as possible, broke the kiss and turned it into a hug instead.

 

“Please forgive me.”

 

Kyuhyun says, smiling sadly when feeling how Changmin was nodding against his shoulder. The last thing in the world he wanted was to lose his best friend. Without him, nothing would be the same. There was a space in his heart that fit no one else than this tall eye candy he was hugging right now, and nothing would change it.

 

Not even what would happen after Kyuhyun opens his eyes.

 

There had been some weird noises from the doorway just a moment ago but they had no idea someone actually came in. But yes, it seems Kyuhyun and Changmin were alone no more.

 

Eunhyuk stands in the doorway of the living room. He is holding a bucket of red roses in his hand. He is dressed fancily, like he’d been about to go out or to meet someone important.

He meets Kyuhyun’s eyes. The flower bucket from his hands drops on the floor, and Eunhyuk turns around and disappears from the open door into the darkness of the corridor.

 

-----------